RFK Jr.’s Skeptics Say Overhauling School Lunch Is Impossible—It’s Not | Opinion

Let’s face it. Making healthy food choices in America isn’t easy. Over 45 percent of U.S. deaths from heart disease, stroke, or diabetes are linked to diet.

Our grocery stores are overflowing with processed foods, and the state of our children’s school lunches is deeply concerning. Many Americans face significant barriers to accessing and affording healthy foods, and when combined with a lack of education about what constitutes a healthy diet, it creates the perfect storm for poor nutrition. It’s no wonder that almost half of all American adults have one or more chronic illnesses due to poor diet.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services, has made addressing the overconsumption and overpromotion of unhealthy diets among Americans—especially children—a central focus of his agenda.

When asked about the state of the typical American diet, Kennedy Jr. stated, “We are mass poisoning all of our children and all of our adults.”

Whether this statement is seen as rhetoric intended to instill fear or as a rallying cry to ignite meaningful change, the call for action is undeniably justified.

Kennedy Jr. has shed light on the severe impact of unhealthy foods on American children’s health—a problem that has been ignored for far too long. Nearly 40 percent of children are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), both funded by taxpayers. By failing to address the connection between diet and disease, we continue to shift the growing burden of health care costs onto taxpayers. Investing in food as a foundation of health must begin with providing nutritious school meals for our children.

More than 40 percent of school-aged children and adolescents have at least one chronic health condition, with diet being a major contributing factor to this jaw-dropping—and sad—statistic. Let that sink in. America’s next generation is engulfed in a litany of health problems caused by a poor diet.

With only one-third of parents believing the standard American diet is healthy for kids, America is primed for a change.

Parents want their kids to eat a healthier diet. But families across the country are facing difficult challenges. According to a nationwide study by Research!America, the top barriers to eating a healthier diet include the cost of healthy food (60 percent) or food insecurity, or as I like to say nutrition insecurity, lack of time to prepare healthy meals (33 percent) and lack of knowledge of what foods are healthy and how to prepare healthy meals (32 percent).

Everyone agrees that nourishing our kids with healthy food is a no-brainer—now it’s time to act. We must rally around removing ultra-processed foods from children’s diets, reducing food additives, and limiting the use of pesticides and harmful chemicals in farming practices. Providing children with access to healthy foods should begin with school lunch programs. Additionally, we urgently need to reintroduce home economics classes in schools, focusing on teaching the fundamentals of food preparation, cooking, and nutrition through a modernized and comprehensive approach.

Overhauling school lunches is a straightforward initiative with far-reaching benefits and should be a top priority for policymakers. A critical first step is offering free lunch to all students. Currently, not every state provides free lunch for all students, which is nothing short of a travesty.

Schools are already required to follow MyPlate standards for lunches, which mandate 40 percent vegetables, 10 percent fruits, 20 percent protein, and 30 percent whole grains. The focus should be on simple, wholesome foods made with straightforward ingredients. Meals should be both nutritious and appealing, prepared in ways that encourage children to enjoy them. Offering a variety of options is essential, with prioritizing or maintaining salad bars in all schools being a key focus.

While many argue that this can’t be done effectively, it absolutely can. The logistical challenges are far less daunting than they’re often portrayed. With MyPlate guidelines already in place specifying the required amounts of fruits, vegetables, dairy, protein, and grains, what’s needed is an overhaul of the standards for cooking and preparation working to remove ultra-processed foods completely from our schools. Other developed countries have school lunch programs that put ours to shame—it’s time to rise to the challenge and set a higher standard.

Simple, straightforward policy adjustments can significantly improve children’s diets while addressing national health disparities. With the collective support of the American public, policymakers, community leaders, and health plans, changing the foundation of the American diet for the next generation should be achievable. Providing healthy, nutritious school meals for our children should never be a political issue. The challenge of diet-related diseases in this country persists because food has long been entangled in politics.

Ashley Tyrner-Dolce has gone from living in a food desert as a single Latina mother, reliant on Medicaid and food stamps, to the founder and CEO of FarmboxRx—the first organization to scale food as medicine in health care as a powerful member engagement tool.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.